CALL OUT - This afternoon we were paged with an Immediate launch request to 4 persons on the sandbank, North of Dunnerholme Rock.
IRB Launched and was quickly on scene, the casualties were stood ankle deep in the rising tide and with another 50 minutes before high water this rescue could have had different results if not for the persons who raised the ALARM and the casualties standing their ground to avoid wading into deeper water.
Furness Coatguard attended and gave the individuals a water safety talk.
Luckily for these people it was 4 persons saved, always take care, in an EMERGENCY Dial 999 Coastguard, today these people were very lucky, TAKE CARE.
This short video taken by a member of the public shows the speed at which crew were launched.
We enjoyed another sunny day at the annual Askam Carnival.The sunshine brought the community out and we hope to have helped raise money for a variety of good causes during the parade.
Well done to the Carnival queen Tabitha Britton and her assistants and to everyone that take part in the parade and dance competitions after.
It was great seeing so many of you out on the field enjoying yourselves, so until next time, stay safe.
If you go down to the sea today…….you’ll see there has been some building work taking place at the Duddon Inshore Rescue boathouse.
We are in the final stages of decorating our new training and meeting room which has been added as an extension to our existing boathouse. This was a dream of our founder member Bernard Mc Namee to have a facility to train crew and without his generosity it wouldn’t have been possible so we are pleased to see this dream becoming reality.
A massive thank you to all the crew and our supporters for making this possible and all the hard work that has been put into painting and decorating the inside.
3 crew members took time out of their busy schedules to go up to Glasgow for the weekend to complete the RYA Advanced Power Boat Course which means they are qualified to helm the boat at night time.
After weeks of preparation and planning including navigation and chart work we are pleased to announce that Ian, Jonni and Stu all passed the course and had a great weekend.
The course covered day & night time operations and a 55 mile passage plan on the River Clyde.
Over the past couple of months the crew at Duddon Inshore Rescue have been busy with a range of both practical and classroom based training.
On the 10th November we joined Furness Coastguard and Ulverston Inshore Rescue on a multi-agency training exercise “Operation Jubilee” in the Walney channel.
The operation involved supporting Furness Coastguard in putting Water Rescue techniques to practice in difficult conditions with the flow from the channel and darkness.
We have also had an interesting and informative training session from Paul Helm regarding working alongside helicopters and their crew.
A number of crew members are working towards their advanced powerboat qualification and all crew members are involved in certain aspects of this training such as completing chart work.
Scenario based training such as Operation Jubilee is crucial to enable the team to develop and enable their skills. One particularly gruesome scenario the team completed involved locating a wounded walker, completing first aid and returning the walker to a specific pick up point. Full marks go to the make-up on this task!
Sunday 19th June 2016 marked a special day in the history of Duddon Inshore Rescue as we held the blessing and naming ceremony of our new boat. This was linked to the first ever boat launch as it occurred on the same date and tide time as the original launch in 1970.
Invites were designed in the same style as the 1970 invites and included a list of original crew members as well as todays crew to further tie the events together.
Reverend Allan Mitchell completed the blessing and naming ceremony stating it was the first time he had had the honour of completing a task like this in over 35 years service. The boat has been named Anyon Arthur Kay in memory of Anyon Arthur Kay and in recognition of his generous donation to Duddon Inshore Rescue which enabled us to purchase the boat. As occurred in 1970 we again used a bottle of Sass to pour over the hull to complete the ceremony.
Ian Standing ensured the 3 original crew members from 1970 who attended were given much deserved recognition before the current crew headed out on the boat to showcase its capabilities.
A man over board exercise was completed as part of the display.
A presentation in the boat house explained the history of the Inshore with photos showing the development in the building and equipment. Everyone had the chance to look around the boat house and enjoy drinks and delicious cakes.
There was a great amount of support on the day and it was great to see and speak to members of the public and representatives from other organisations such as the Coastguard, RNLI and Mountain Rescue plus other local Inshore representatives.
We would like to thank everyone who attended and made the day such a success.
The event was featured in local press with some great pictures. Links below:
With temperatures over 20 degrees and the sun shining, we took part in the annual Askam Carnival held on 4th June 2016.
There was a fantastic turn out and everyone donated generously as we followed up the rear of the parade before heading to the playing fields where people could come and look at the boat, tractor and quads close up, purchase some delicious cakes and watch videos of some of our training exercises.
Thank you to all who donated and took part making this event a success.
Crew took to the water to practice some man over board, boat and radio training. The weather was on our side and we had a successful day with all crew having the opportunity to rescue and be rescued from the water plus landing on Roanhead beach and crossing the estuary to Millom Pier.
Some great shots were taken of the training session:
The afternoon was spent completing an informative classroom based session and this was then put into practice in an evening session in the pool. Crew learnt sea survival techniques, medical aspects of sea survival and more about life jackets.
For example did you know that if you enter UK waters without a life jacket or protective clothing you’re chances of survival are very slim after 4 minutes but if you enter the water in a dry suit and life jacket you can survive more than 10 hours.
During the pool session crew members had the opportunity to put the classroom theory into practice.
Various subject areas were covered in the pool including;
Getting into the life raft and familiarisation of what equipment would be in the raft and what to put in your grab bag.
How to assist an unconscious casualty into the life raft
And, how to turn the lift raft over if it landed and went off upside down in the water.
